Press and daily Dakotaian. (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1880-1889, 1887-03-03
CHINOOK WIgDS.
symptoms O. a Break in the Upper
ffiyer-The Record of lSsi and Dupli
cate Conditions for the Present

--
Symptoms of a BreaiS in the Upp,
Riyer-The Record of lSSh and Dupl
cate Conditions for the Presel
spring.
Bismarck advices state that at 81
O'Clock Sunday evening there was OF
served a suddea rise In Temperature,
The old residenters smiled as they note
the change. TT is the chinook" the
said. 'The backbone of old winter
broken" 1t continued through Nor
day, reinforced by a sun SO warm as {
give a suggestion of summer. AS a re
suit the thermometer went up to sixty
four in the SUN. For three months Their
had been no thaw at Bismarck and nine
ty days had passed since rain had fallen
and then but a slight sprinkle.
The same evening the long looked fol
chinook wind presented itself in Mon
tana territory, and il proved q great
boon and relief to the live stock inter
ests. Dispatches from all parts of thai
territory reported that the chinook was
general. the temperature ranging from
forty to fifty degrees, with a warm wind
from the southwest, which was carrying
off the snow rapidly. A food is feared
IN the Yellowstone.
On Monday at various points in cen
trail Dakota u thaw was in progress aud
from Pierre comes the prediction of an
early opening OF navigation. Aberdeen
announces . chinook on that
day and rapidly melting snow.
These signs Of the breaking up of
q severe winter along the Missouri
and Jim rivers possess unusual interest.
They portend q flood of water with pos
sible disastrous consequence.
On occasions like this we take the
spring of 1881 as a basis of comparison.
In the extreme south part of Dakota
there is mob now as much snow as there
was at the time OF the 1881 break up,
though in that year there was 8 consider
able snow fall after this date. On the
Bird of March, 1881, a severe blizzard pre-
vailed which added to the winters
supply. Now in the south tier of coun-
ties there ID hardly any snow and in the
next tier north the bulk of the snow has
without raising the rivers.
From the neighborhood of Mitchell
the quantity OF snow increases
and the heaviest deposit has its center
along the line of the forty-sixth parallel,
The record shows that the spring break
up in Montana began in 1851 with a
chinook during the opening days OF
March and the Yellowstone began to fill.
At Fort Buford Ton the Missouri at the
mouth of the Yellowstone) the rise
began on the 9th of March. On TIE 9Th
the ice went out at B Afford with q rise OF
feet.
At Bismarck the ice broke on the 10th |
with . rise greater than that at Buford.
AT Fort Suily a rise from lo3al causes
began on the 10th and on that date the
ice was reported rotten with three feet
d water over it and a heavy rain falling. |
The ice broke up at Sully about q week
later, when the Buford food reached |
that point.
On the 18th there was a heavy rise at
which carried out the ice. This
WAS the flood which started al Buford.
Fort Randall and Springfield report
the first rise on the 2lst of March and
on the same day the advance OF the Bu-
ford food was visible at Yankton. On
The 22nd a heavy rise was recorded at !
Ysnkton. On the 18th the ice went ont
Randall and Springfield with a tre-
nendous food and gorged, producing q
'all of several feet at Yankton. On the
9th OF March the gorge let go and
the afternoon of that day the ice |
1roke mp at Ysnkton and this event was
jollowed by o food Of unprecedented
This record show that
precisely three weeks elapsed between
The first decided rise at Fort Buford and
inc break up ct Yankton. On that o.
,asion the river opened near Its upper
extremity first, a circumstance which
nay not occur this year if the present
continues.
We'haye 30 far a duplicate. of the 1880
81 conditions: a winter of great
severity, and a SNOW fall along the upper
perhaps hardly equalled by that OF
Chinook winds during the
opening days of March, with the diff
that they reach farther east and
'outh than in 1881, which is favorable.
of a break in the Yellow
'tone which if continued as in 1881 will
a break up OF the Missouri at Bu-
ord by the end OF the first week of
Ii the experiences of 1881 are
duplicated we may expect the break up
1t Yankton during the last week of this
month. Ii orr ice goes out before that
lime serious results will probably be
Carney-has California cabbsges.
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$1OOO-Worth of personal property
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